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Wednesday, Oct. 13, 2021

Did a recently vaccinated Delta pilot die suddenly during a flight, necessitating an emergency landing?

Sarah Thompson, Lead Stories

no

A Delta Air Lines official says the claim is false, and the FAA says it has no evidence of such an occurrence.

The claim came during an online program, with the only sourcing being three anonymous "whistleblowers" purportedly connected to Delta. The incident supposedly occurred between October 1 and 11 — but there is no evidence to back up the unsubstantiated claim.

There has been no news reporting of what would be a noteworthy incident, and no crowdsourced accounts from passengers on that purportedly diverted flight.

Morgan Durrant, spokesman for Delta Air Lines, told Lead Stories: "Delta is aware of reports suggesting one of the airline's pilots passed away from vaccine complications while operating a flight, resulting in an emergency landing. All of these allegations are false."

A spokesperson for the FAA said, "The FAA has found no evidence such an event occurred."

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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.

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Lead Stories is a fact checking and debunking website at the intersection of big data and journalism that launched in 2015. It scouts for trending stories, images, videos and posts that contain false information in order to fact check them as quickly as possible. It actively monitors the fake-news ecosystem and doesn’t wait for reader tips or reports before getting started on a story.

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